New portraiture lighting equipment – the Orbis™ Ringflash

To ensure that I can offer as wide a range of photographic lighting options as possible for clients, I decided to take the plunge and buy an Orbis™ Ringflash light modifier. It’s a piece of equipment that I’ve been toying with getting for a while now and having spoken to other users and seen examples of their work, I was sufficiently impressed enough to get one for myself.

The Orbis™ (pictured below) uses my existing speedlight flash guns and turns them into a ring flash unit which can be used to create stunning portraits with a ‘high-end magazine’ and fashion style look.

I’m really looking forward to using the Orbis™ in future photo shoots as well as taking advantage of the better weather we seem to be having lately and doing some more outdoor, on-location portraiture. I’ve got some great potential photo shoot locations lined up that I want to try out soon, so fingers crossed the weather will hold out for the foreseeable future!

As soon as I’ve had a chance to try out the Orbis™ properly, I’ll post some photos up in my flickr photostream.

Time flies by!

I can't believe it is already February - this year seems to be rushing by already.  This year has so farbeen really hectic for a number of reasons.  Hopefully we've seen the end of the snow for now which caused so much disruption everywhere, though it did give me a chance to get out and get some photos which will come in useful for my 2011 calendar!

Around the middle of January I visited the SWPP Trade Show in Hammersmith and met up with some of the suppliers I am planning on using this year as well as attending a few of the workshops that were available.  It was a worthwhile visit overall.

There were a few photo opportunites around and I managed to get a short photoshoot with model Katie Green.

You can see some of the shots below:

John Wood Photography is now on Facebook – become a fan!

John Wood Photography is now on Facebook and I’d love you to become a fan. Simply click on this link to view the John Wood Photography Facebook page and then click on the ‘become a fan’ icon.

I’ll be posting details of special offers from time to time which will only be available to my Facebook fans and not posted anywhere else, so keep on checking the page to ensure you don’t miss out!

You’ll also be able to see sneak previews from my latest photo shoots and find out about what I’ve been up to with my photography.

Full range of photographic products now available

John Wood Photography is now offering a complete range of photographic products from a range of specialist suppliers. Clients can now make a feature wall portrait of their photos with a range of different sized canvases and acrylic prints.

Canvases are available in a wide range of sizes, formats and frame depths from a square format of 12x12 inches up to a portrait / landscape size of 60x34 inches. All canvases are printed onto ultra white cotton weave Matte canvas 415gsm using Epson 9800 professional wide format printers with 8 colour K3 UltraChrome inks. The canvases are printed, hand stretched and constructed in the UK. All canvases include a hanging bracket so it is ready to be displayed in your home.

My acrylic prints offer a new and exciting way to show off your portraits. Giving the impression that your photo is ‘floating’ off the wall, they really are a spectacular sight and certainly a conversation piece for family and visitors alike. The acrylic prints I provide have your photo printed directly onto the rear surface of the 1cm thick acrylic and then an opaque backing is applied. Many inferior so called ‘acrylic’ prints are just printed photos which are either bonded to the rear of a piece of acrylic or sandwiched between two layers of the material. The technique of printing directly onto the acrylic gives a perfect finish with no chance of air bubbles or the print coming away from the material over time. It also gives it a hardwearing finish that can be cleaned with a damp cloth without worry of damaging the picture. Furthermore, to assist with displaying your acrylic print, a computer cut template is supplied to enable you to ensure that the fixings are placed in the correct position before it is fixed to the wall.

I also offer clients the option of having large format prints of their portraits which can be supplied on their own or ready mounted and framed. Prints can be of just a single photo or one made up of multiple apertures (smaller images within the same overall print). Again a wide range of sizes is available from square prints of 20x20 inches up to 40x40 inches and portrait / landscape sizes from 20x16 inches up to 48x32 inches. There is a virtually unlimited range of options in between to get the perfect print to suit your needs and your home.

Finally, I offer you the choice of having your photos in a stylish photobook which you will cherish for years to come. Books come in a range of sizes and finishes. You can have softback covers, hard backed books with photos printed on the cover or hardbacks with fully printed dust jacket covers. The layout of the books is totally customisable with double page spreads possible. The books look great on your coffee table (you won’t want to leave them tucked away on a bookshelf for long!) and smaller format books make great presents for family members like grandparents.

With all of the above range of photographic products, I have chosen suppliers with a dedication to providing the highest quality finished products and excellent attention to detail, all at an affordable price.

Whatever way you choose to display your photos, I want you to be happy with that choice for years to come.

Jane’s maternity shoot

On Sunday morning I had a maternity photo shoot with Jane who is expecting twins in just over a month’s time. We have been planning the shoot for just under a couple of months now and it came about after she saw some examples of my other maternity photos.

Earlier in the week I had sent Jane a set of posing ideas that I have put together and which would give her an idea of some of the setups that she might want to try. I feel that this is an important step to undertake with maternity (and also boudoir) photo shoots as it can give the client some ideas that they may not previously have thought of trying out.

After setting up my portable studio in their living room, we set went over the posing sheets I had sent her and discussed what she might like to try. We then started with the photo shoot itself. As Jane has a young daughter, I thought it would be good to get some shots of her with her mum and connecting with her soon to be new sisters. Ellie was a star in her own right and we got some great photos – one of which can be seen below.



We then built the series of shots up to include the whole family and brought in her husband to get them all together for a few photos. When working with children, I feel it is very important to get them involved but also to make sure that if they are taking part in the shoot that they take part at the earliest opportunity. They can soon lose interest and want to go back to playing with their toys or watching their favourite DVD! When that moment arrives, there is little point in making them carry on as children will just play up and you can’t easily get what you need. Letting kids do their own thing for a while will usually also mean that they may well come round to the suggestion of having a few more shots later in the session – it certainly worked in this case!

With Ellie off playing, I was able to spend some more time getting shots of Jane using a selection of the different backgrounds and voile drapes that I had brought with me. As the shoot progressed, Jane’s confidence grew and she was up for trying out more adventurous shots. I never push clients into trying things that they aren’t fully comfortable with – hence one of the reasons for sending over the posing ideas sheet before the shoot. That way, clients can get an idea of what they might want to try and what they might not. I very much see a photo shoot as a two way collaboration which needs both the photographer and client to connect in order to get the best from a session. With Jane’s increasing confidence she was happy to try some of the more challenging poses as she wanted to get as much a record of her pregnancy as possible – the twins are likely to be enough to keep her hands full for a while! The following are a few more photos taken during the session.

The last photo in this post (above) showing Jane lying down with her legs pointing in the air to the ceiling really shows off her neat bump and was a shot we obviously had to catch quickly for Jane’s comfort! Luckily the effort paid off and the result is great.

For me (and hopefully my clients!), the real essence of maternity photography is to capture the mum-to-be in her blossoming stage and her bump in the most flattering way when I take the photos. By directing Jane into different poses, with subtle placement of her hands to protect her modesty and careful lighting set ups we have ended up with a set of fantastic photos that I hope she will treasure for years to come and want to show her new girls when they are old enough.

If you are interested in having a maternity photo shoot of yourself, or perhaps you know someone who would be interested, then please make contact with me via the website John Wood Photography and I would be delighted to talk you through the various options and packages I offer - ranging from one off ‘bump’ shoots through to a 5 session ‘Bump to baby’ package which includes a maternity shoot and then 4 shoots during baby’s first year.

I generally find that maternity ‘bump’ shoots are best undertaken during the 34 – 37 week stage of your pregnancy but that doesn’t mean that shoots taken any earlier or later than this won’t capture you at your finest as every woman is different.

Busy times

Well it's been a hectic couple of months since my last post. I've been very busy with some exciting projects which have turned out very well. I've even managed to fit in a holiday to Cornwall which as well as being a relaxing time, also allowed me to capture some great shots that I plan to use over the next few months and year.

An event of note has been finished off today with the launch of new offices for a local pharmaceutical company which asked me to decorate their walls with several of my photos including a large 56x34 inch canvas of one of my London landscape scenes. I also supplied them with 3 other framed prints from my series of photos taken in London during the twilight time.

Seeing the finished canvas and framed prints on the wall was very satisfying for me and even more so to hear that the client is also delighted with the finished products.

I was kindly invited to the launch party and it was well attended event with several large companies and trade organisations from the Watford area all present. Our local MP - Claire Ward, was also there and she sounded impressed with the new offices, company expansion plans and of course the use of the work of local artists to brighten up the working environment!

Here are a couple of shots of my work in place in the new offices:






The photos are located on the main stairway to the offices in the building so any visitor will pass by them and see my bio which has also been included (you can just see it between the framed prints in the second photo above).

My revised search engine optimisation has obviously started to pay off as the company found me just by doing an internet search. The search engine optimisation I've talked about in earlier posts is an ongoing process but I feel it's making good headway so far.

Another event I've been busy with that is a first for me is the photographing of a large Muslim wedding. I photographed the first ceremony - the Nikah, back at the start of August and now there are two more ceremonies to cover before the wedding is finally considered complete. The final ceremony is expected to have a couple of thousand guests attending so it's going to be an interesting day but one I'm really already looking forward to!

One final upcoming shoot I've got coming up in a few weeks time is a maternity shoot for a friend who is expecting twins. I'm really looking forward to this shoot though it's going to be right at the limit of when maternity photography is considered at it's best - typically 34-37 weeks for a single pregnancy and a bit earlier for twins.

Check back soon for some sneak peeks of some new images I've taken over the last couple of months and have been working on.

Summer dreaming

Poppies06
Originally uploaded by John Wood Photography

Sitting here today looking out at the rain falling, my mind takes me back to when this photo was taken last month. Hopefully the sunshine will come back - and soon!

Time as ever seems to be running away with me and with over another month's gap since the last post I thought I would post this shot.

I've had a busy month but have managed to get in a couple of shoots ranging from this landscape to a boudoir portrait session. Talk about opposite ends of the spectrum!!

I was lucky with the skies on the day I did the poppy shots - they were a rich blue with lovely fluffy clouds dotted here and there. Couldn't really ask for more. There's a few more shots of the poppy field on my flickr stream so do take a look.

As mentioned above, my other shoot was a boudoir portrait shoot. This was my second boudoir shoot so I was a little apprehensive but keen to make sure everything went well and we captured the shots we were after. Looking back, I had no reason to worry as the collection of images we've ended up with are stunning. Joanne (my client), is thrilled with the shots she's seen so far and I've now got the task of assembling a book of her favourite images. You can see a selection of the images that Jo has approved for posting and a write up of the shoot from her experience over on my dedicated boudoir photography site: Beautiful Boudoir Photos
Thanks to Jo for a great photo session.

You can also see a slideshow of the images on my YouTube channel: John Wood Photography on YouTube - just select the show "Joanne's boudoir photoshoot"

Until next time.